Theme: fate, remembrance, bravery, and the strength to walk your own road
On the eleventh night of Yule, we honour the Valkyries — the radiant, fearsome women of Odin who ride above the battlefield as “choosers of the slain.” They are the ones who decide which warriors are worthy to be gathered up and carried onward. In the old worldview, this wasn’t simply grim. It was sacred. It was order inside chaos. It was fate with a face.
Valkyries are often described as foster daughters of Odin: powerful, warlike, bright as blades, and bound to the work of choosing. Their choices shape who joins Freyja’s hall and who goes to Odin’s Valhalla, where the fallen become the Einherjar — warriors who prepare for Ragnarök.
Death, honour, and the Norse acceptance of endings
In Norse thought, death wasn’t something to deny. It was part of the cycle. A hard truth, yes — but not an enemy to be feared into silence. To die well, to die with honor, to die with courage… that mattered.
The Valkyries embody that worldview. They are beautiful and terrifying at once — symbols of fairness, brightness, and honour, but also bloodshed, consequence, and the inevitability of endings. They remind us: life turns. Everything turns. And what matters is how you meet the turning.
The Valkyries in lore: fate, battle, and otherworldly power
In some older layers of belief, Valkyries carry a darker edge — connected with ravens, carrion, and the battlefield’s raw reality. In later heroic myth, they become the iconic warrior-women: mounted, helm-clad, shield-bearing, wielding spears and choosing the slain with divine authority.
They are also tied to magic and fate. Their choosing doesn’t only reflect what happens — it helps shape what happens. Their role sits right on that razor-thin line between destiny and action.
And the hall imagery reinforces it: the Valkyries are described as foster daughters, while the Einherjar are foster sons — both gathered under Odin’s roof, both made part of something bigger than mortal life.
Freyja’s role matters here too. She is often named as Valfreyja, “Mistress of the Slain,” and is said to take the first choice of the fallen for her own hall, Sessrúmnir, with the rest going to Odin in Valhalla. The myths don’t always line up perfectly across sources, but the spirit is consistent: the dead are not abandoned — they are received.
A night of remembrance
This night is also a natural time to remember those who have passed — especially those we’ve lost over the past year.
Set aside fear. Set aside the need to make it tidy.
Remember them honestly:
- Their voice
- Their laugh
- Their stubbornness
- Their love
- What they taught you without meaning to
- What they left behind in you
Light a candle for them. Speak their name. Raise a horn if you wish. Let them be part of your Yule.
The Virtue of Self-Reliance
Tonight’s virtue is Self-Reliance, and it pairs perfectly with the Valkyries. Because just as they choose the fate of warriors, we are asked to choose our own road — and then walk it.
Self-reliance doesn’t mean you never need anyone. It means:
- You take responsibility for your choices
- You build your character from the inside out
- You define your ethics and live by them
- You don’t outsource your integrity
- You rely on yourself to administer your own morality
In a path like ours — where honor is internal, not enforced by a rulebook — self-reliance is essential. It’s how you keep your word. It’s how you become someone you can trust.
Ways to honor the Valkyries and Self-Reliance
- Light a candle for the dead and speak their names
- Reflect on the battles you survived this year — literal or emotional
- Ask yourself: Where do I need to stand on my own two feet now?
- Make one vow you can keep — a small, real act of self-reliance
Raise a horn to the Valkyries, the warriors gone before, and the strength to carry yourself forward
Raise that horn high tonight — to the fierce women who choose, to the brave who fall, and to the living who must keep walking.
May the Valkyries watch over you with sharp eyes and fearless grace.
May you honour the dead with love, and the living with courage.
May self-reliance rise in you — not as loneliness, but as strength: clean choices, true integrity, steady will.
And may you walk your road with your head up, your heart steady, and your honour intact.
Hail the Valkyries, hail the fallen, and hail the strength to stand on your own.